Multiple-platform estimating and automatic quoting for network-based parts resale with transferable reports

ABSTRACT

A part location system is described that utilizes computer-based techniques for bringing together repair facilities and suppliers to increase the efficiency of locating recycled, used or aftermarket parts using a computer network, such as the Internet. The part location system receives an estimate from a first user over a communication network. The part location system then parses the estimate to extract information that identifies a list of parts needed by the first user and automatically generates a request for quote (RFQ) using the information extracted from the estimate. The part location system then sends the RFQ to suppliers via the communication network. Subsequently, the part location system receives quotations from at least one of the suppliers via the communication network in response to the RFQ and presents the quotations received in response to the RFQ to a repair facility via the communication network.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/789,808,filed Apr. 25, 2007, which claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/794,896, filed Apr. 25, 2006 and is acontinuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 10/979,777, filed Nov. 2,2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,835,945), which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/516,696, filed Nov. 3, 2003, U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/519,456, filed Nov. 10, 2003, and U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/546,122, filed Feb. 19, 2004, the entirecontents of each being incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to network-systems for the sale of recycled, usedor replacement parts for repair of systems and products.

BACKGROUND

The Internet has provided buyers and suppliers with new opportunities toconnect with each other to buy and sell products. Many systems forconnecting these buyers and suppliers have been developed that providecomputerized mechanisms to solicit quotes for items and request offersfrom suppliers to assist in sales process. While these systems provide amechanism for the sale of goods from suppliers to buyers, these systemsare typically general in nature, i.e., these systems offer goods of anytype that may be, at most, organized into different categories of goodsbeing offered for sale. These systems provide sales methods of varyingtypes that may include auctions, request for proposals, offers topurchase or other types of sales transactions.

SUMMARY

In general, the invention is directed to techniques for bringingtogether repair facilities and suppliers to increase the efficiency oflocating recycled, used or aftermarket parts using a computer network,such as the Internet. The automobile industry is one such industry thatfrequently uses recycled, used and replacement parts for repair.

As will be described in further detail below, a part location systemreceives an estimate from one of the repair facilities. The repairfacility may remotely log into the part location system using a webbrowser and send the estimate to part location system via the Internet.The estimate may be, for example, an estimate provided to an owner of anautomobile that is in the repair facility for repair.

The part location system parses the estimate to extract pertinentinformation regarding parts needed in the repair process andautomatically generates a request for quotation (RFQ) using thepertinent information extracted from the estimate. The informationextracted from the estimate may include make/model/year of theautomobile as well as a list of parts that are needed for the repair.The part location system may further filter the extracted informationsuch that no private information about the vehicle owner is included inthe RFQ.

The part location system selects one or more suppliers to send the RFQ,and electronically sends the RFQ to the selected suppliers. In oneembodiment, the part location system selects the one or more ofsuppliers based on a database of stored profiles for the requestingrepair facility. For example, based on the database, the part locationsystem identifies specific suppliers with which the requesting repairfacility is willing to conduct business. In this manner, the repairfacilities may select their own suppliers to create a virtualmarketplace of suppliers with whom they wish to do business.

The part location system receives quotes for one or more partsidentified in the RFQ from one or more of suppliers that received theRFQ. The part location system presents the quotes to the repair facilityassociated with the RFQ, i.e., the repair facility that sent the RFQ.The repair facility examines the quotes received from the suppliers anddetermines whether to accept any of the quotes. Upon accepting one ofthe quotes, the part location system automatically generates a purchaseorder for the identified part and sends the purchase order to thecorresponding supplier that submitted the quote.

The part location system maintains an audit log that includes eachgenerated RFQ as well as the resulting quotes received for each RFQ.Additionally, the part location system further maintains an electronicrecord of the parts purchased by the repair facility, i.e., the quotesaccepted by the repair facility, in the audit log. The repair facilityor an auditor, such as an insurance company, may electronically accessthe audit log to track the effort used to obtain recycled or aftermarketproducts. In this manner, the part location system may be used as anauditing tool to make sure that repair facilities make a legitimateeffort to find recycled, used or aftermarket parts when appropriate.

In one embodiment, the invention provides a method comprising receivingan estimate from a first user over a communication network, parsing theestimate to extract information that identifies a list of parts neededby the first user, and automatically generating a request for quote(RFQ) using the information extracted from the estimate. The method alsoincludes sending the RFQ to suppliers via the communication network andreceiving quotations from at least one of the suppliers via thecommunication network in response to the RFQ. In addition, the methodcomprises presenting one or more of the quotations received in responseto the RFQ to a repair facility via the communication network.

In another embodiment, the invention provides a device comprising acommunication interface to couple the device to a computer network and acontrol unit. The control unit comprises a parsing engine that receivesan estimate from a remote first user over the computer network andparses the estimate to extract information that identifies a list ofparts needed by the remote first user. The control unit also comprises arequest for quote (RFQ) manager that automatically generates an RFQusing the information extracted from the estimate and sends the RFQ tosuppliers via the computer network. In this embodiment, the RFQ managerreceives quotations from at least one of the suppliers via thecommunication network in response to the RFQ. In addition, the controlunit comprises a quotation review interface to present one or more ofthe quotations received in response to the RFQ to a repair facility viathe communication network.

In a further embodiment, the invention provides a system comprising arepair facility coupled to a computer network, a network device coupledto the computer network, wherein a first user uses the network device, aplurality of suppliers coupled to the computer network, and a partlocation device coupled to the computer network. In this embodiment, thepart location device comprises a control unit that comprises a parsingengine that receives an estimate from the first user over the computernetwork and parses the estimate to extract information that identifies alist of parts needed by the first user. This control unit also comprisesa request for quote (RFQ) management module executed by the control unitto automatically generate an RFQ using the information extracted fromthe estimate and sends the RFQ to suppliers via the computer network. Inthis embodiment, the RFQ management module receives quotations from atleast one of the suppliers via the communication network in response tothe RFQ. The control unit also comprises a quotation review interface topresent one or more of the quotations received in response to the RFQ tothe repair facility via the communication network.

In another embodiment, the invention provides a computer-readable mediumcomprising instructions that cause a programmable processor to receivean estimate from a first user over a communication network, to parse theestimate to extract information that identifies a list of parts neededby the first user, and to automatically generate a request for quote(RFQ) using the information extracted from the estimate. In addition,the instructions cause the processor to send the RFQ to suppliers viathe communication network and receive quotations from at least one ofthe suppliers via the communication network in response to the RFQ. Theinstructions also cause the processor to present the quotations receivedin response to the RFQ to a repair facility via the communicationnetwork.

The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth inthe accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features,objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thedescription and drawings, and from the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary on-line sales systemfor buying and selling of recycled, used and aftermarket parts forrepair of systems and products.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary part location systemfor increasing the efficiency of an on-line sales system for buying andselling of recycled, used and aftermarket parts for repair of systemsand products.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating exemplary operation of a partlocation system in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating exemplary operation of partlocation system as an auditing tool.

FIG. 5 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forlogging into part location system.

FIG. 6 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forsubmitting an estimate to system or viewing other account activity.

FIG. 7 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface fordownloading an Active X controller for the EMS Estimate submittaloption.

FIG. 8 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface presentedto the user associated with a repair facility after downloading theActive X controller, but before using the EMS Estimate option.

FIG. 9 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forreviewing an RFQ generated by part location system.

FIG. 10 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forediting parts information in the RFQ.

FIG. 11 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forviewing open RFQs.

FIG. 12 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forviewing the actual quotes of an open RFQ.

FIG. 13 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 165 forrecommending available alternative parts to the repair facility by doinga quick zip code search.

FIG. 14 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forviewing closed RFQs.

FIG. 15 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forreturning a part to a supplier.

FIG. 16 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface thatcompiles all data regarding a claim and alternative parts requests.

FIG. 17 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forreporting of use of part location system for finding recycled, used oraftermarket parts.

FIG. 18 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forsuppliers to view RFQs received from repair facilities.

FIGS. 19 and 20 are a screen illustration of exemplary user interfacesfor suppliers to provide quotes to part location system.

FIG. 21 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forallowing direct communication between the repair facility and thesupplier.

FIG. 22 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forpresenting a supplier with all currently outstanding quotes.

FIG. 23 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forviewing pending purchase orders.

FIG. 24 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forviewing a detail page of a particular claim.

FIG. 25 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forviewing purchase orders that the supplier has declined.

FIG. 26 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forviewing sales the supplier has completed.

FIG. 27 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forviewing messages that the supplier has declined.

FIG. 28 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forviewing messages that the supplier sent or received in further detail.

FIG. 29 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forreporting use of part location system.

FIG. 30 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forsetting a profile.

FIG. 31 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface forsetting the number of leads part location system should show at a time.

FIGS. 32-43 are screen illustrations of exemplary user interfaces foradministrative functions.

FIG. 44 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary procedure to gatherquotations and make recommendations.

FIG. 45 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary procedure for a repairfacility to access recommendation reports and create purchase orders.

FIG. 46 is a screen illustration displaying a recommendation report.

FIG. 47 is a screen illustration of an exemplary welcome page thatallows a repair facility to enter a transfer ID to retrieve quotesreceived in response to an RFQ.

FIG. 48 is a screen illustration of an exemplary quote summary.

FIG. 49 is a screen illustration of an exemplary registration screen.

FIG. 50 is a screen illustration of an exemplary quotation reviewinterface.

FIG. 51 is a screen illustration of an exemplary quotation reviewinterface for existing users of a part location system.

FIG. 52 is a screen illustration of an exemplary repair facilitymanagement calendar.

FIG. 53 is a screen illustration of an exemplary supplier managementcalendar.

FIG. 54 is a screen illustration of an exemplary parts quoted screen.

FIG. 55 is a screen illustration of an exemplary quotation reviewinterface that allows a user to sort quotes by supplier.

FIG. 56 is a screen illustration of an exemplary supplier survey.

FIG. 57 is a screen illustration of an exemplary delivery profile inputscreen.

FIG. 58 is a screen illustration of an exemplary warranty andcertification interface.

FIG. 59 is a screen illustration of an exemplary inventory consolidationinterface.

FIG. 60 is a screen illustration of an exemplary quotation reviewinterface having a flyover pop-up.

FIG. 61 is a screen illustration of an exemplary recommendation reportimage.

FIG. 62 is a screen illustration of an exemplary recommendationinterface sorted by type of part.

FIG. 63 is a screen illustration of an exemplary parts supplier servicearea.

FIG. 64 is a screen illustration of an exemplary insurance rulesinterface.

FIG. 65 is a screen illustration of an exemplary administrativeinterface to close an outstanding claim.

FIG. 66 is a screen illustration of an exemplary internal reportinginterface that uses Asynchronous JavaScript and extensible markuplanguage (XML).

FIG. 67 is a screen illustration of an exemplary response time reportinterface.

FIG. 68 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary details of the on-linesales system.

FIG. 69 is a screen illustration of an exemplary remote data captureadministration interface.

FIG. 70 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary interaction with anestimating platform.

FIG. 71 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary operation to verifywhether parts are still available at quoted prices.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary on-line sales system10 for buying and selling of recycled, used and aftermarket parts forrepair of systems and products. One such industry that frequently usesrecycled, used and replacement parts for repair is the automobileindustry. Although the techniques of the invention are described hereinin terms of the automobile industry for exemplary purposes, thetechniques of the invention may be applied to other repair industries inwhich it may be beneficial to use recycled, used or aftermarket parts inthe repair of systems or products. For example, the techniques of theinvention may be applied to the boat or airplane repair industry.

In general, the invention is directed to techniques for bringingtogether repair facilities 12A-12N (“repair facilities 12”) andsuppliers 14A-14K (“suppliers 14”) to increase the efficiency oflocating recycled, used or aftermarket parts using a computer network16, such as the Internet. As illustrated in FIG. 1, repair facilities12, suppliers 14 and a part location system 18 are coupled to a commoncomputer network 16. Repair facilities 12 and suppliers 14 communicateinformation regarding recycled, used and aftermarket parts to oneanother via computer network 16 and part location system 18. Partlocation system 18 may, for example, comprise one or more centrallylocated servers, and is accessible to repair facilities 12 and suppliers14 via computer network 16 using a standard web-browser or othercommunication interface.

In addition, auditors 20A-20M (“auditors 20”) may couple to commoncomputer network 16 to communicate with part location system 18.Auditors 20 may, for example, be insurance companies, and may utilizepart location system 18 to monitor repair facilities 12 to ensure thatrepair facilities 12 are making an “honest” effort to find recycled,used and aftermarket parts when appropriate.

Computer network 16 may include one or more Local Area Networks (LANs),Wide Area Network (WANs), Wireless LANs or the like. Computer network 16may also include one or more connected network devices (not shown), suchas personal computers, laptop computers, handheld computers,workstations, servers, routers, switches, printers, fax machines, or thelike. Repair facilities 12 may include auto repair shops from around thenation, or even around the world. Suppliers 14 may include recyclers,used part dealers, aftermarket vendors or any combination thereof.Suppliers 14 may also be located anywhere throughout the nation or theworld.

As will be described in further detail below, part location system 18electronically publishes requests for quotes (RFQs), also referred to asrequest for proposals (RFPs), for repair facilities 12, and sends theRFQs to one or more of suppliers 14 to obtain a quote for one or moreitems on the RFQ. In particular, part location system 18 receives anestimate from one of repair facilities 12, e.g., repair facility 12A.The estimate may, for example, be an estimate provided to an owner of anautomobile that is in repair facility 12A for repair.

Part location system 18 parses the estimate to extract pertinentinformation, such as the parts needed in the repair process, andautomatically generates an RFQ using the pertinent information extractedfrom the estimate. Part location system 18 selects one or more ofsuppliers 14 and sends the RFQ to the selected suppliers 14. In oneembodiment, part location system 18 selects the one or more of suppliers14 based on a stored profile of repair facility 12A. For example, partlocation system 18 may store a profile that identifies specificsuppliers 14 with which repair facility 12A is willing to conductbusiness. Thus, part location system 18 will only send the RFQ to thoseparticular suppliers 14 with which repair facility 12A will conductbusiness. In this manner, repair facilities 12 may select their ownsuppliers to create a virtual marketplace of suppliers with whom theywish to conduct business.

Part location system 18 receives quotes for one or more parts identifiedin the RFQ from one or more of suppliers 14 that received the RFQ. Partlocation system 18 presents the quotes to the repair facility associatedwith the RFQ, repair facility 12A in this example. Repair facility 12Aexamines the quotes received from suppliers 14 and determines whether toaccept any of the quotes. Upon accepting one of the quotes, partlocation system 18 automatically generates a purchase order for theidentified part and sends the purchase order to the correspondingsupplier that submitted the quote.

Part location system 18 maintains an audit log that tracks generatedRFQs as well as the resulting quotes received for each RFQ.Additionally, part location system 18 further maintains a record of theparts purchased by repair facility 12A, i.e., the quotes accepted byrepair facility 12A, in the audit log. Repair facility 12A or an auditor20 may access the audit log to track the effort of repair facility 12Aused to obtain recycled or aftermarket products. In this manner, thepart location system 18 may be used as an auditing tool to make sure therepair facilities make a legitimate effort to find recycled, used oraftermarket parts when appropriate.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary part location system22 for increasing the efficiency of an on-line sales system for buyingand selling of recycled, used and aftermarket parts for repair ofsystems and products. Part location system 22 may, for example,represent part location system 18 of FIG. 1.

Part location system 22 comprises a control unit 23 that includes webserver 24, a user interface module 25, a parsing engine 26, an RFQmanagement module 28, and an audit log 30. Part location system 22 alsoincludes user databases 32, which include a supplier database 34A, arepair facility database 34B, and an auditor database 34C. Web server 24provides a seamless, network-based interface by which a remote useraccesses part location system 22. More specifically, web server 24provides a web-based interface by which the user interacts with partlocation system 22 via a computer network, such as computer network 16of FIG. 1. In one configuration, web server 24 executes web serversoftware to provide an environment for interacting with the user via auser interface module 25. Control unit 23 may include one or morecomputing devices for implementing the various components of the controlunit, including web server 24, user interface 25, parsing engine 26 andRFQ management module 28.

User interface module 25 may include Common Gateway Interface (CGI)programs and a graphical user interface (GUI) generator for generatingand presenting user interfaces to the user. In various embodiments, theinterface presented by part location system 22 may include combinationsof “server-side” user interface modules executing on web server 24 and“client-side” user interface modules, such as ActiveX® controls,JavaScripts™, and Java™ Applets, that execute on a computing devicelocated within one of repair facilities 12, suppliers 14 or auditors 20.A user may be an employee associated with one of repair facilities 12,suppliers 14 or auditors 20. For example, an employee may be anestimator, parts manager, parts dealer or the like.

A user, such as an estimator or parts manager, at one of repairfacilities 12, e.g., repair facility 12A, may connect to part locationsystem 22 via the computer network using a web browser. User interfacemodule 25 presents the user with a user interface for logging into partlocation system 22. Part location system 22 receives login data from theuser, such as a username and password associated with the repairfacility, the user or both, to authenticate the identity of the user orrepair facility 12A. The connection through which repair facility 12Aconnects to part location system 22 may be a secure connection throughthe network such that all the data sent between part location system 22and repair facility 12A is encrypted to prevent unauthorized access tothe data. In another embodiment, authentication may be performed using adigital certificate or other digital credential.

Once the user at a repair facility is logged into part location system22, user interface module 25 presents the user with an input screen toallow the user to input an estimate. In addition the estimate inputscreen provides the user with an option to view previous activity, suchas previously generated RFQs. The estimate input screen allows the userto input an estimate in a number of different ways. The user may, forexample, copy and paste an estimate from an estimating platform into awindow provided by the estimate input screen, electronically attach anestimate, such as an estimate provided to a client by an automobilerepair facility, or employ the Estimating Management Standard (EMS) toextract and transfer data from the estimating platform to part locationsystem 22. In some cases, repair facility may request parts withoutgenerating an estimate. In such cases, the user at the repair facilitymay enter a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) into the estimate inputscreen and then manually select particular parts that are needed for therepair.

Once repair facility 12A submits the estimate, part location system 22automatically generates an RFQ. More particularly, parsing engine 26parses the estimate and extracts the information necessary toautomatically generate the RFQ. For instance, parsing engine 26 mayextract information such as a make, model, and year of the vehicle or aVIN number, as well as all of the parts requested by repair facility12A. In addition, parsing engine 26 of the part location system 22 maybe configured to intelligently filter particular information. Forexample, parsing engine 26 may filter information that is protected forprivacy reasons, such as name, address, telephone number or otherpersonal information associated with the owner of the vehicle. Asanother example, parsing engine 26 may filter parts that recyclerstypically do not carry or that should be purchased new, e.g., roadhazard parts or liability parts, such as brakes. Further, parsing engine26 may automatically recognize combinations of parts that may form anaggregate part and, instead of or in addition to extracting the separatesmaller parts, parsing engine 26 may identify the aggregate part. Incertain cases the aggregate part may be cheaper to purchase than thesmaller parts listed.

RFQ management module 28 collects all of the pertinent informationextracted from parsing engine 26 and automatically generates the RFQ.For example, RFQ management module 28 collects the vehicle information,repair facility information, claim information and all the identifiedparts, including the aggregate parts that may be substituted for acombination of smaller parts, and generates the RFQ. Part locationsystem 22 may further allow the repair facility to embed an image of oneor more of the requested parts in the RFQ.

Part location system 22 then electronically forwards the RFQ to a set ofsuppliers 14, which may include recyclers, used part dealers andaftermarket vendors, via computer network 16. The set of suppliers 14 towhich part location system 22 sends the RFQ may be pre-selected by therequesting repair facility 12A or an insurance company or other auditor20 associated with repair facility 12A. For example, repair facility 12Amay select suppliers 14 within a specific geographic location. Repairfacility 12A may, for example, enter a zip code of where the vehicle isto be repaired and perform a 200-mile radius search. As another example,the insurance company associated with the repair facility 12A may selectsuppliers 14 with which the insurance company frequently does business.Additionally, part location system 12 may maintain a profile of one ormore of suppliers 14 to narrow the scope of the RFQs that each of thesuppliers 14 obtains. For instance, a supplier that only carries partsfor Ford Mustangs may provide part location system 22 with a profileindicating that only RFQs that include parts for Ford Mustangs should besent.

Part location system 22 may maintain such information in user databases32. In particular, part location system 22 may maintain a profile ofsuppliers 14 in supply database 34A, a profile of repair facilities 12in repair facility database 34B and a profile of auditors 20 in auditordatabase 34C. Repair database 32B may include information such asusername and passwords associated with each repair facility 12, acontact name, address and telephone number associated with the repairfacility 12, pre-selected suppliers 14 with which each repair facility12 is willing to conduct business, the markup used by the repairfacility 12, and the like. Supplier database 34A may include a usernameand password associated with each supplier 14, a particular type of partor parts stocked by the supplier 14, e.g., only Ford Mustang parts, andthe like. Auditor database 34C may include username and passwordassociated with each auditor 20, repair facilities used by auditor 20,suppliers 14 with which the auditor is willing to conduct business andthe like. Although in the example illustrated in FIG. 2 part locationsystem 22 maintains a separate database for suppliers 14, repairfacilities 12 and auditors 20, part location system 22 may maintain asingle database that stores information associated with all users ofpart location system 22.

Suppliers 14 receive the electronic RFQ from part location system 22 andelectronically submit quotes on parts requested in the RFQ. Suppliers 14may submit quotes on all of the parts listed in the RFQ or a portion ofthe parts, depending on the inventory of recycled or aftermarket partscurrently available at the particular supplier. In one embodiment, thequote process is carried out in a “live” fashion. More specifically, anemployee of the supplier 14 reviews the received RFQ and enters a quotefor one or more of the requested parts. The “live” quote processincreases the procurement of recycled parts because the supplier maycheck the recycled or aftermarket parts inventory before making thequote. For example, conventional recycle quote processes typicallyaccess a database of the supplier to determine whether the part isavailable and the price of the recycled part. However, since thedatabase of the supplier may not always be up to date, the live quoteprocess increases the reliability of the recycled parts quoting process.Suppliers 14 may be required to quote within a certain amount of time inorder to preserve the timeliness of obtaining quotes for recycled oraftermarket parts.

In another embodiment, the quote process is automated. In this case,suppliers 14 provide part location system 22 with direct access to thesupplier's inventory. Aftermarket suppliers can, for example, provide a“feed” of data from their inventory management system that can be quotedupon to repair facility 12A on their behalf. These feeds can be sentdaily or weekly to part location system 22 depending on the accuracy ofthe inventory. Some suppliers 14 can establish a “live auto-quote”system that allows the request from part location system 22 to directlyhit their inventory instantly. This “live auto-quoting” directly fromthe inventory means that all data is current when the repair facilitiesreceive the price.

Part location system 22 may present repair facility 12A with the quotesor quotes from suppliers 14. More particularly, repair facility 12A mayaccess the part location system 22 and review the quotes from suppliers14. Part location system 22 may automatically organize the quote orquotes from suppliers 14 according to part, supplier, or the like. Forinstance, part location system 22 may organize all of the quotes for anew door panel together and all of the quotes for a new bumper together.Organizing the quotes by part may allow repair facility 12A to view howmany quotes for each part was received, along with the price of eachquote. Part location system 22 can also organize the parts by supplierto give the repair facility 12A the ability to select suppliers 14 withwhom they do the most business.

In addition, part location system 22 may calculate the prices for thepurchased parts to include any mark-ups that repair facility 12Acharges. Part location system 22 may further post the price of acomparative new part or price as listed on the estimate for comparisonwith the price of the part.

Repair facility 12A selects one of the quotes for at least a portion ofthe parts from the RFQ. If, however, no quote is accepted by repairfacility 12A for a particular part, repair facility 12A may place acomment next the quote explaining why the quote was not accepted. Forinstance, if a quote is almost the price of an equivalent new part,repair facility 12A may make a note indicating the quote price was tooexpensive.

Repair facility 12A can also select “use on estimate” as an alternativeto buying the part right away. This selection puts the part on hold withthe supplier until such time that repair facility 12A may need topurchase the part. This feature also allows the insurance carrier to bemade aware that the price was use on the estimate and savings haveoccurred more quickly.

Upon receiving input from repair facility 12A identifying quotes thatrepair facility 12A would like to accept, part location system 22automatically generates a purchase order for each of suppliers 14 fromwhich repair facility 12A is purchasing parts. If repair facility 12Ahas selected multiple parts from a particular supplier, part locationsystem 22 will make one purchase order that includes all of the partsfrom that particular supplier.

As described above, part location system 22 maintains a record of eachthe parts RFQs generated as well as the resulting quotes received foreach of the RFQs. Additionally, part location system 22 maintains in therecord the parts purchased by the repair facility. Part location system22 stores this information in audit log 30. In this manner, partlocation system 22 may be used as an auditing tool. Part location system22 may, for example, allow the auditor to search for repair facilitiesby city, shop name, parts manager, date, time and the like. Further,part location system 22 may allow the auditor to inspect repairfacilities and the attempts to obtain recycled parts in a real-timefashion. For instance, an insurance company may use part location system22 to check whether a repair facility is attempting to find recycledparts for automobiles that are currently being repaired by the repairshop instead of only analyzing repairs that were performed months ago.

Part location system 22 may further provide the auditing entity withsummaries of the use of part location system 22. For instance, partlocation system 22 may provide the auditing entity with a summary thatillustrates the number of claims, total number of parts obtained in theclaim, the total number of parts purchased, and the total savings. Inthis manner, insurance companies or other auditing entities maydetermine whether repair facilities 12 are making a legitimate effort tofind recycled, used or aftermarket products.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating exemplary operation of a partlocation system, such as part location system 22 of FIG. 2, inaccordance with the invention. Initially, a mechanic, parts manager orother user associated with a repair facility 12 logs into part locationsystem 22. The user may, for example, connect to part location system 22using a web browser, and input a username and password to log into partlocation system 22.

Part location system 22 receives input identifying one or more partsneeded by a repair facility (40). For example, part location system 22may receive an estimate from the repair facility. As described above, amechanic or parts manager of the repair facility may copy and paste anestimate from an estimating platform into a window provided by theestimate input screen, electronically attach an estimate created usingan estimating platform or employ the Estimating Management Standard(EMS) to extract and transfer data from the estimating platform ofrepair facility 12 to part location system 22. The attached estimate maybe in a format of a standard estimate platform. In the case ofautomobiles, the standard estimate platform may be one of CertifiedCollateral Corporation (CCC), Mitchell, or Automatic Data Processing(ADP).

Part location system 22 parses the estimate (42) and automaticallygenerates an RFQ based on the estimate submitted by the repair facility(44). Particularly, part location system 22 parses the estimate toextract pertinent information to automatically generate the RFQ. Inaddition, part location system 22 may filter out unnecessary or unwantedinformation, such as private information about the vehicle owner. Forexample, the parsing engine may extract information such as a make,model, and year of the vehicle, as well as all of the parts specified bythe repair facility, while filtering out protected information, such asname, address, telephone number or the like. Part location system 22 mayadditionally map a part number associated with some or all of therequested parts to a corresponding part number of a supplier.

Further, parts location system 22 may automatically recognizecombinations of parts that may form an aggregate part and, part locationsystem 22 may generate the RFQ to list the aggregate part instead of orin addition to listing the separate smaller parts. In addition, partlocation system 22 may allow the repair facility to embed an image inthe RFQ.

Part location system 22 electronically forwards the automaticallygenerated RFQ to one or more suppliers 14 via the computer network (46).As described above, the set of suppliers 14 that receive the RFQ may beselected by the requesting repair facility 12, an insurance companyassociated with the repair facility 12, or the like.

Part location system 22 electronically receives quotes on one or more ofthe parts requested in the RFQ from suppliers 14 that receive the RFQ(48). As described above, the quote process may be carried out in a“live” fashion or in an automated fashion using a feed from thesupplier's inventory management system.

Part location system 22 presents the repair facility with the quotesfrom suppliers 14 (50). Part location system 22 may organize the quotesfrom suppliers 14 according to part, supplier, or the like. In addition,part location system 22 may organize each of the quotes for a particularpart according to price, distance, or other variable.

Part location system 22 receives input from the repair facilityidentifying one or more quotes that the repair facility would like toaccept (52). If no quotes are accepted for a particular part, partlocation system 22 requests the repair facility to indicate the reasonfor not accepting any of the quotes for the part. Part location system22 automatically generates and sends a purchase order for the partsassociated with the accepted quotes (54). If the repair facility hasselected multiple parts from a particular supplier, part location system22 will make one purchase order that includes all of the parts from thatparticular supplier.

Part location system 22 maintains an audit log for tracking the use byrepair facilities of part location system 22 (56). For example, partlocation system 22 may maintain a record of each the parts RFQsgenerated, the resulting quotes received for each of the RFQs, the partspurchased by the repair facility, and the like. Thus, part locationsystem 22 may be used as an auditing tool to determine whether repairfacilities 12 are making a legitimate effort to find recycled, used oraftermarket products.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating exemplary operation of partlocation system 22 as an auditing tool. As described above, partlocation system 22 tracks the use of the system by repair facilities forauditing purposes. Auditors, such as insurance companies, may want tomake sure that the repair facilities are making legitimate efforts torepair vehicles at the lowest cost. Thus, part location system 22 allowsauditors to track use of recycled, used and aftermarket products in therepair of the vehicles.

Initially, part location system 22 receives criteria for an audit froman auditor 20 (60). The criteria may, for example, include one or morerepair facilities shop names, cities, parts managers, dates, times, orthe like. Part location system 22 accesses the audit log to extractinformation corresponding to the search criteria input by the auditor 20(62). For example, if the criteria input by the auditor 20 included arepair facility name and a date range, part location system 22 wouldfind all RFQs, resulting quotes, and parts purchased by the identifiedrepair facility during the specified dates. Part location system 22displays the information retrieved from the audit log to the auditor 20(64). As described above, the dates and times may be specified such thatauditors 20 may track the repair facilities attempt's to find recycledand aftermarket products in real time, i.e., for cars currently beingrepaired by the repair facility.

In another embodiment, part location system 22 may further provide theauditing entity with periodic summaries of the use of part locationsystem 22 according to criteria specified by the auditor. For instance,part location system 22 may provide the auditing entity with a summarythat illustrates the number of claims (also referred to as RFQs), totalnumber of parts obtained in the claim, the total number of partspurchased, and the total savings of particular repair facilitiesassociated with the auditing entity. In this manner, insurance companiesor other auditing entities may determine whether repair facilities 12are making a legitimate effort to find recycled, used or aftermarketproducts.

FIG. 5 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 70 forlogging into part location system 22. In the example illustrated in FIG.5, user interface 70 presents a login screen that includes a box 72 toenter a username and a box 74 to enter a password. As described above,system 22 may use the username and password entered by the user toidentify the repair facility, supplier or auditor logging into partlocation system 22. Part location system 22 directs the user to aportion of the site that is pertinent to the user's business. Forexample, if part location system 22 identifies the user as a repairfacility, part location system 22 may direct the user to a page forinputting an estimate and generating an RFQ. As another example, partlocation system 22 may direct the user to a page for reviewing receivedRFQs and making quotes if the user is identified as a supplier.

In addition, system 22 associates the repair facility 12, supplier 14 orauditor 20 with user specific information maintained in a respective oneof user databases 32. For example, part location system 22 may associatethe username and password with previously generated RFQs, preferences ofsuppliers with whom to conduct business, types of parts maintained bythe supplier or the like.

FIG. 6 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 80 forsubmitting an estimate to system 22 or viewing other account activity.Part location system 22 displays user interface 80 to a user uponassociating a name and password with a repair facility. Had the name andpassword been associated with an auditing entity or a supplier, adifferent user interface would be presented to the user as describedabove.

User interface 80 presents the repair facility with a number ofdifferent methods for submitting an estimate. As illustrated in FIG. 6,user interface 80 presents the repair facility with three differentoptions for submitting an estimate; and EMS Estimate submittal option82, an Estimate File Upload option 84, and an Estimate Form Submissionoption 86.

EMS Estimate submittal option 82 is for submittal of ADP, CCC, Comp Est,and Mitchell EMS extracts. The user selects EMS Estimate submittaloption 82 by clicking on the appropriate circle corresponding with thetype of EMS extract the user is submitting. In the example illustratedin FIG. 6, the ADP estimate platform is selected. A repair facility mayneed to download an Active X controller from part location system 22 tofacilitate the use of the EMS Estimate extraction.

Once an estimate platform is chosen, part location system 22 populates adrop down menu 88 with claims that have been extracted. In oneembodiment, part location system 22 only populates drop down menu 88with claims that have been extracted within a specified time period,e.g. 24 hours, to prevent overcrowding of the drop down box. The userselects the claim that the user wants to convert to an RFQ and hits“Submit”. Part location system 22 then parses the estimate andautomatically generates and RFQ corresponding to the estimate.

Estimate File Upload option 84 is used with Mitchell, ADP and CCCwithout PDI, e.g., estimates that have been saved using “print to file.”The user, e.g., parts manager of a repair facility, selects “Browse”button and attaches the estimate from a saved location. The user selects“Submit” button and part location system 22 uploads the specified filefor parsing into an RFQ.

Estimate Form Submission option 86 is used with CCC estimates using PDIor Process Claims estimates. The user copies the CCC with PDI estimateand pastes it in Estimate Form Submission box 90. The use selects“Submit” button and part location system 22 automatically generates anRFQ based on the information contained in Estimate Form Submission box90.

Although user interface 80 illustrated in FIG. 6 presents the repairfacility with three estimate submitting options, the user interface alsopresent the repair facility with a manual option 87 for identifyingneeded parts. The user may manually identify needed parts by entering amake/model/year of a car or a VIN number and then specify the particularparts needed. Once the pertinent vehicle data is specified, partlocation system 22 can create a unique interchange process to determinethe correct OEM part associated with the vehicle.

Part location system 22 narrows down each specific part requested toproduce the OEM part number(s) and list price(s) associated with eachpart. Part location system may, for example, do this by mapping theunique vehicle represented by the VIN to a unique vehicle class listedin the OEM database. This allows the generation of a distinct part listfrom the VIN. This part list is mapped to the parts that are found onthe claim allowing us to match OEM parts to parts found on the claim.The database is a consolidated OEM database of multiple manufacturersthat allows us to take virtually any vehicle sold in the United Statesand identify the distinct parts that pertain to that vehicle. We thenmatch them to the non-distinct generic parts listed on the claim.

In addition, user interface 80 includes a “My Activity” sidebar menu 92that includes links to “Open” activities, “Closed” activities, and“Messages.” The “Open” link takes the user to any RFQs that have one ormore parts that have not been ordered or closed. In other words, theuser may view all RFQs that have been sent to suppliers and eitherreceived quotes or are waiting to receive quotes from those suppliers.The “Close” link navigates the user to a user interface that presentsthe user with RFQs in which all parts have been ordered or closed, i.e.,the RFQs are no longer pending. The “Messages” link navigates the userto a user interface that presents the user with any messages receivedfrom suppliers.

FIG. 7 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 110 fordownloading an Active X controller for the EMS Estimate submittaloption. If the user chooses not to download the Active X controller, theuser may limit the possibilities for submitting an estimate to EstimateFile Upload option 84 and Estimate Form Submission option 86 (See FIG.6). In other words, without downloading the Active X controller, therepair facility may be unable to use the EMS Estimate option 82.

FIG. 8 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 120presented to the user associated with a repair facility afterdownloading the Active X controller, but before using the EMS Estimateoption 82. User interface 120 allows the repair facility to set up anupload profile that directs part location system 22 to a location atwhich the estimates are stored. The repair facility browses throughlocal directories and specifies file paths of EMS files. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 8, the file path for all the ADP EMS files isU:\EMS_testinADP\. The repair facility may set the file path for the EMSfiles for each of the estimate platforms that the repair facility uses.In other words, the repair facility only needs to set a profile for theestimate platforms used by the repair facility. If a repair facilityonly uses the CCC estimate platform, the repair facility may only set aprofile for the CCC EMS and leave the ADP, Comp Est, and Mitchellprofiles blank. Once the file paths are determined, the repair facilityuploads the settings to part location system 22 by pressing the “Set”button. After the profile is established, part location system 22populates drop down menu 88 of FIG. 6 with claims from the specifiedlocation.

FIG. 9 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 130 forreviewing an RFQ generated by part location system 22. As described indetail above, part location system 22 automatically generates the RFQusing an estimate submitted by a repair facility. User interface 130presents the repair facility with a preview of the RFQ as generated fromthe estimate. An estimator or other user from the repair facility shouldreview the RFQ to verify that all information is correct beforesubmitting it.

As illustrated in FIG. 9, user interface 130 divides the informationcontained in the RFQ into sections, which include a claim informationsection 132, a vehicle information section 134, a parts informationsection 136, a contact information section 138, and a processinginformation section 139. The repair facility may edit any of theinformation in the RFQ by selecting the Edit/Add button associated withthe section within which the information is located. In other words,each section has editable fields that can be accessed by selecting theEdit or Edit/Add links following the titles of each section.

After the claim has been through editing, the repair facility may enterin a mark-up amount as well as customer status. Part location system 22calculates the mark-up on the quotes that are returned from thesuppliers using the specified mark-up. The customer status drop downallows the user to make the suppliers aware of the status of the clientrequesting their quotes.

FIG. 10 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 140 forediting parts information in the RFQ. Parts location system 22 maypresent user interface 140 to a user upon the user selecting the“Edit/Add” button associated with parts information section 136 (seeFIG. 9). User interface 140 allows the user to either edit alreadyselected parts or to add new parts. If the user wanted to add anadditional part, for example, the user enters information describing thepart in part information input section 142. To edit a part, the userselects the check mark beside the part. This causes the part to beremoved from the list and placed into the part information section 142.The user can add specific part information and then select “Update/AddPart.” As illustrated in FIG. 10, the user may insert an imageassociated with a part by specifying a location associated with thepicture in Image box 144.

FIG. 11 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 150 forviewing open RFQs. Part location system 22 may present user interface150 to a user upon the user selecting the “Open” link on “My Activity”sidebar menu 92. Alternatively, part location system 22 mayautomatically direct the user to the user interface 150 once the userhas reviewed and submitted the RFQ.

User interface 150 presents the user with all of the RFQs presentlyopen. As described above, an RFQ is open when the RFQ includes one ormore quotes that have not been accepted or declined, or when the periodfor receiving quotes is still open. In addition to a list of all theopen RFQs, user interface 150 presents the user with a year, make andmodel of the vehicle associated with the RFQ, the auto owner associatedwith the RFQ, the date the RFQ was sent, the number of quotes (i.e.,responses) received for parts, and the number of unread messages. Inthis manner, the user may monitor the quotes received from the suppliersin the network. In one embodiment, part location system 22 periodicallyrefreshes user interface 150, e.g., once every 15 seconds. The user mayview the actual quotes by clicking on the claim number for which theuser would like to see the quotes.

FIG. 12 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 160 forviewing the actual quotes of an open RFQ. User interface 160 presentsthe user with actual quotes from suppliers. In the example illustratedin FIG. 12, parts location system 22 organizes the quotes according toparts; bumper assembly, headlamp assembly, and fender. As describedabove, however, the quotes may be organized according to supplier, thetime at which the quote was received or according to some othervariable.

In this case, only a single quote is received for the bumper assembly,and three quotes are shown for both the headlamp assembly and the fenderwith a link to six more quotes. For each quote, user interface 160presents the name of the supplier, the price of the quote, the shippingcosts, and the cost with markup. In addition, if the supplier attachedan image of the part offered, a camera icon with a hyperlink wouldappear on user interface 160. In the example illustrated in FIG. 12, thesupplier name and the quote price are hyperlinks to supplier contactinformation and comments by the supplier, respectively.

To purchase a product, the user selects a “buy” box adjacent to the oneor more parts the user would like to buy and selects a “submit” button.Part location system 22 automatically creates a purchase order for theparts selected and sends the purchase order to the supplier associatedwith the particular accepted quotes. If the repair facility decides notto accept any of the quotes, the user may select a predefined reason fornot purchasing any of the used, recycled or aftermarket parts in theclose RFQ drop down menu. Upon selecting the reason in the close RFQdrop down menu, and selecting submit, part location system 22 sends anelectronic message to the supplier indicating that their quote was notaccepted. Part location system 22 captures all the actions of the repairfacility provides it back to the insurance company or other auditingentity for auditing purposes.

User interface 160 provides the repair facility with the ability toreturn a part that was previously purchased from a supplier. Forexample, the bumper assembly was previously purchased from AdvantageRecycling as indicated by the “purchased” link in the “buy” column. Inorder to return a product, the user simply selects the “purchased” link,which takes the user to a return user interface.

In addition, user interface 160 provides the repair facility with theability to attach an R.O. number for searching in reporting, sendmessages to one or more suppliers regarding the specific quotes, andshow quotes from only specific suppliers.

FIG. 13 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 165 forrecommending available alternative parts to the repair facility by doinga quick zip code search. An independent appraiser or employee of arepair facility searches for one or more alternative parts across thecountry by entering a zip code of where the vehicle is to be repaired.The user can enter a zip code from the estimate submission page (seeFIG. 6) and part location system 22 will perform a 200-mile radiussearch. Part location system 22 seeks out the requested parts from thesupplier's inventories within the radius and return prices back to theuser. The user can then elect to “use on estimate” any prices returned.Once all prices have been selected, part location system 22 generates arecommendation report user interface 165 that the appraiser can email orprint off to give to the repair facility that will be making therepairs. This recommendation report will include the suppliers name,contact information, and price as well as the approximate mileage thesupplier is from the repair facility.

FIG. 14 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 170 forviewing closed RFQs. An RFQ is closed once all parts on a claim havebeen ordered or closed. Part location system 22 may present userinterface 170 to a user upon the user selecting the “Closed” link on “MyActivity” sidebar menu 92.

User interface 170 of FIG. 14 presents closed RFQs for the month ofSeptember. The user may, however, select a different month from themonth drop down menu to view RFQs closed during other months. The usermay click on a RFQ number to view the activities that transpired for aparticular RFQ in more detail. For example, by clicking on the RFQnumber the user may view decline reasons, quotes returned, purchases,returns, and the like.

In addition, user interface 170 presents purchase orders associated withthe particular RFQ. In the example illustrated in FIG. 14, userinterface 170 presents three purchase orders associated with RFQ#6476765477; a purchase order to Sals' Salvage, a purchase order toHarris Auto Recycling, and a purchase order to Jason's Part Mart. Theuser may view the purchase orders for the corresponding RFQ in moredetail by clicking on the supplier's name. In addition to providing theuser a detailed view of the purchase order associated with the supplier,the user may initiate a return to the supplier by clicking on thesupplier's name.

FIG. 15 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 180 forreturning a part to a supplier. User interface 180 presents adescription of the part, the price paid for the part, and the date thepart was purchased. User interface includes a return box 182, which theuser may select to return a part. Part location system 22 will promptthe user for a reason for the return, and will store this action in theaudit log for reporting. Part location system 22 will notify thesupplier of the return as well as the reason for the return.

FIG. 16 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 190 thatcompiles all data regarding a claim and alternative parts requests. Userinterface 190 allows a repair facility to reveal all alternative partsrequests regarding a claim for an insurance audit. Parts User interface190 includes part description, number of quotes from suppliers with andwithout the specified part, price as written on the estimate, thedifference between the price on the estimate and the purchase price,status (e.g., whether purchased, declined, or returned), and a commentas to decline or return reason.

The purchases can be differentiated by aftermarket and recycled.Purchase prices followed by an A represent purchases from aftermarketvenders while purchase prices followed by an R represent purchases fromrecyclers. In some embodiments, an OEM price may be displayed instead ofthe price from the original estimate, to show the savings the insurancecompany received by purchasing alternative parts.

FIG. 17 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 200 forreporting of use of part location system 22 for finding recycled, usedor aftermarket parts. User interface 200 reports an overview of all RFQssubmitted into the network by a repair facility. The data can be sortedby region, which may be multiple states or single state, city, date,vehicle year, report type, insurance company, state, claim number orR.O. number. The repair facility may report the data back to corporateheadquarters or an insurance carrier for auditing. These numbers enablecollision repair centers to provide accurate alternative partsutilization data to reduce an insurance company's severity on claims andsolicit additional DRP business.

By selecting the search by feature, user interface 200 allows acollision repair center to view activity from suppliers in theirnetwork. The primary view yields data from all suppliers in the privatenetwork. By selecting User, data from individual supplier can beobtained. This data can be used to determine if a supplier is using thenetwork, number of sales and total expenditures.

FIG. 18 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 210 forsuppliers to view RFQs received from repair facilities. Part locationsystem 22 displays user interface 210 to a user upon associating a nameand password with a supplier. User interface 210 presents suppliers witha view of RFQs received from multiple repair facilities. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 18, the supplier has only received two RFQs, bothfrom Body Shop A.

The supplier may make quotes on one or more parts listed in the RFQ byclicking on the claim number to go to a quoting screen. If the supplierdoes not have a particular vehicle in stock, the supplier may click a“Close Claim” button adjacent to the particular claim and that claimwill be removed from the list.

The estimate associated with the RFQ is attached and may be accessed byselecting the “View Estimate” button associated with the particularclaim. Parts location system 22 removes any private information from theestimate before attaching the estimate.

All user interfaces presented to a supplier, including user interface210 include a “My Activity” side menu bar that allows the supplier toview its activities. For example, the “My Activity” side menu bar allowsthe user to view quotes that are currently out to repair facilities,parts on hold, all sales made, purchase orders from buyers, all declinedpurchase orders or returned parts, and messages posted to a repairfacility or messages received from a repair facility and require aresponse.

FIGS. 19 and 20 are a screen illustration of exemplary user interfacesfor suppliers 18 to provide quotes to part location system 22. Asdescribed above, the quotes submitted from suppliers 18 are subsequentlypresented to the repair facility that sent the RFQ. Particularly, FIG.19 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 220 forrecyclers to provide quotes to part location system 22 and FIG. 20 is ascreen illustration of an exemplary user interface 230 for aftermarketvendors to provide quotes to part location system 22. In other words,part location system 22 presents a different user interface forsuppliers to submit quotes depending on the type of supplier logged intothe system, e.g., recycler or aftermarket vendor.

User interface 220, for example, may be presented to a recycler upon therecycler clicking on the claim number of a previous user interface, suchas user interface 210 of FIG. 18. Upon clicking on the claim number,part location system 22 displays to the recycler all parts listed on theRFQ. The recycler enters the quote price for the parts they have instock. Particularly, the recycler enters the quote price in the quoteprice box adjacent to the part name. The recycler may additionally entera clean/repair time, shipping price, attach an image of the part ifavailable and add any comments pertaining to the part (e.g., a deliverytime for the part, a condition of the part, and a contact person at therecycler) in the respective boxes. As illustrated in FIG. 19, the quotefields are pre-populated with $0.00, so if the recycler does not haveone or more of the parts listed on the RFQ, the quote sent back to therepair facility would be $0.00, thus indicating to the repair facilitythat the recycler does not have the part in stock.

In addition, the recycler can send a message or question directly to therepair facility via the send message button. This feature is similar toa private message board. Only the two participating parties can view it.

User interface 230 is presented to an aftermarket vendor upon theaftermarket vendor clicking on the claim number of a previous userinterface, such as user interface 210 of FIG. 18. Thus, depending on theclassification of the supplier as a recycler or an aftermarket vendor,the page presented to the supplier for submitting quotes is different.User interface 230 conforms substantially to user interface 220 of FIG.19, but instead of entering a quote price and a clean and repair time,aftermarket suppliers submit net and list prices when quoting a repairfacility. In addition, the aftermarket supplier selects whether the partis CAPA or MQVP certified.

FIG. 21 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 240 forallowing direct communication between the repair facility and thesupplier. Part location system 22 may, for example, present userinterface 240 to a supplier upon the supplier clicking on the “SendMessage” link on the quoting user interface, e.g., user interface 220 ofFIG. 19 or user interface 230 of FIG. 20. Thus, if the supplier has aquestion for the repair facility, the supplier may elect to send them amessage using the message boards system.

FIG. 22 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 250 forpresenting a supplier with all currently outstanding quotes. Partlocation system 22 may present user interface 250 to the supplier uponthe supplier selecting the “Quotes Out” link on the “My Activity” sidemenu bar. Quotes in this screen are listed by claim or RFQ number. Inaddition to the quote number, user interface 250 presents the user witha make, model and year of a vehicle associated with the RFQ number, aninsurance company (if there is one) associated with the claim, the dateand time of the quote, and the repair facility to which the quote wasgiven. In addition, part location system 22 generates a purchase reportwhen a purchase has been made on any of their quotes out. The purchasereport may be viewed by the user by clicking on the “Purchase Report”link associated with the purchase report. The purchase report will listthe parts sold on that claim. The quote may be viewed in more detail byclicking on the claim number.

FIG. 23 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 260 forviewing pending purchase orders. User interface 260 allows the supplierto arrange the pending purchase orders using a number of differentcriteria, such as by month, country, state, make of vehicle or the like.The supplier must either accept or decline the pending purchase order toproceed with the sale of the part. The supplier may simply click on the“Accept” link to accept the pending purchase order.

Alternatively, the pending purchase order can be accepted inside theclaim by clicking the claim number, verifying the information, andclicking Accept on the detail page. FIG. 24 is a screen illustration ofan exemplary user interface 270 for viewing a detail page of aparticular claim. User interface 270 presents the user with the date,purchase order number, and purchase order status. In addition, thevendor's name and address, purchasers name and address, vehicleinformation, insurance information, part description, price and anycomments regarding the part are presented to the supplier. On the bottomof the purchase order is a “Decline PO” button and an “Accept PO”button. The user may click on either of those buttons in order to acceptor decline the purchase order. If the user decides to decline thepurchase order, the supplier must provide a reason for the decline usingthe decline reason drop down menu. Part location system 22electronically notifies the repair facility that the purchase order wasdeclined. Part location system 22 may, for example, send an email to therepair facility to notify the repair facility of the decline purchaseorder.

FIG. 25 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 280 forviewing purchase orders that the supplier has declined. User interface280 allows the supplier to arrange the pending purchase orders using anumber of different criteria, such as by month, country, state, make ofvehicle or the like. The supplier may simply click on the purchase ordernumber to view the declined purchase order in further detail.

FIG. 26 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 290 forviewing sales the supplier has completed. User interface 290 allows thesupplier to arrange the pending sales using a number of differentcriteria, such as by month, country, state, make of vehicle or the like.The supplier may simply click on the purchase order number to view thesale in more detail.

FIG. 27 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 300 forviewing messages that the supplier has declined. User interface 300allows the supplier to view messages that have either been sent to orreceived from one of the repair facilities with which the supplier isdoing business. The supplier may click on the message subject to viewthe message in further detail.

FIG. 28 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 320 forviewing messages that the supplier sent or received in further detail.Part location system 22 may present user interface 320 to the supplierupon the supplier clicking the message subject in a previous userinterface, such as user interface 320 of FIG. 27. User interface 320 ofFIG. 28, for example, is a more detailed view of the communicationbetween the supplier and Body Shop A, i.e., the second message listed inthe messages user interface illustrated in FIG. 27.

FIG. 29 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 330 forreporting use of part location system 22. In particular, user interface330 allows a supplier to view the total number of claims received, thetotal number of parts listed on the received claims, the total number ofquotes provided, the total number of returns, the total sales and anaverage response time to return a quote. A supplier may sort through thereports based on totals, sales, returns, network sales, network nosales, and the like. In addition, the suppliers can also search by quotenumber, body shop, year/make/model of vehicle, sales reps, and insurancecompany.

FIG. 30 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 340 forsetting a profile. User interface 340 is a profile setup page for asupplier. User interface 340 presents the supplier with a number ofdifferent options for creating filters to control the type of RFQs thesupplier receives from repair facilities. In the example user interfaceillustrated in FIG. 30, part location system 22 allows the supplier tocreate one or more vehicle filters, part filters, or category filters.If the supplier only sells Chevrolet parts, for example, the suppliersets the vehicle filter so that part location system 22 only sends RFQsthat include one or more Chevrolet parts. In another example, a supplierthat only sells radiators can set a part filter that filters out allRFQs that do not include a radiator. Thus, if the supplier does notcarry certain makes, models, or parts, they can set their filtersaccordingly.

FIG. 31 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 350 forsetting the number of leads part location system 22 should show at atime. In the example illustrated in FIG. 31, the supplier wants to view24 leads at a time. Some users, however, may want to view a smallernumber of leads at any given time, such as eight leads.

FIG. 32 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 360 foradministrative functions. User interface 360 presents a user, such as arepair facility, with a starting point for all the sections for repairfacility to maintain groups/networks, companies, users, andregistration. The repair facility may, for example, create networks ofusers, company hierarchies for reporting, add users, change or updateuser information, and the like. Although described in terms of anadministrative user interface for a repair facility, a similar userinterface may be presented to other users, such as a supplier or anauditor (e.g., insurance company).

FIG. 33 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 370 foradding a user. As illustrated in FIG. 33, user interface 370 provides anumber of boxes to enter information regarding the new user. Boxes witha star are required fields, such as username, password and the like. Inone embodiment, all users that register with parts location system 22are required to have a valid dealer's license.

FIG. 34 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 380 foradding a member to a group. Typically users are already registered atthis point, by using the pre-registration checklist and the “Add User”section described above. There are three levels to add users on;regional, local, and user levels. This is the hierarchy of who canreport on whom within the company structure.

FIG. 35 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 390adding a member to a group. Once in the group users can view, remove,and add users. Administrators can also select users to receive anelectronic notification sent to the suppliers and needs to be checkedfor every recycler in a network. Each supplier will be in a watch group,which is an area that customer service uses to monitor supplieractivity. The supplier's in the network illustrated in FIG. 35 includeSal's Salvage and The Partsman. In addition, there is a locationspecified for each of the members of the network for finding aninventory for the supplier for autoquoting.

FIG. 36 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 400 forfinding a user for a group. The administrator types the username of themember the administrator is looking to add to the group and clicks finduser.

FIG. 37 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 410 forviewing the results of a find as described in FIG. 35. Once the userappears, the administrator can check add to group, then click the“add/remove users” button. If the user is already a member of the group,the administrator will be presented with a remove from group check box.

FIG. 38 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 420 forediting a user already added to part location system 22. Theadministrator will click on “edit/del users” in the upper left menu bar.The administrator can then enter the username and click “find users”.Once the user is revealed the administrator can either delete or disablethe user. Disabling the user is generally done by accounting, due tolate payment. Deleting a user is done because of cancellation or fraud.By clicking on the username, the administrator can edit any informationnecessary, such as changing an email address.

FIGS. 39-41 are screen illustrations of exemplary user interfaces forcreating a company. Companies are set up for groups so they can have areporting hierarchy. All groups must have a company associated with itin order to utilize the reporting/auditing functionality.

The reporting hierarchy may be built like a pyramid. For example, acompany may be structured such that it has a headquarters, a regionallevel, a local level, and a user level. The president of a company maythe headquarters and would be able to view all users below him/her. Aregional manager may be in the regional level. For example, the managerfor Utah, would be able to see all local managers and users in Utah, butnot Nevada. A local manager would be able to see all users within hisarea. For example, the manager for Salt Lake City can view all the usersin the area, but not in Provo. Users can only view their owninformation. For example, body shop manager A can access any claims hisshop has entered, but not the shop down the street.

There are two types of company hierarchies that may be established. Thefirst type of company hierarchy is for consolidators. Consolidatorsconsist of one company headquarters with sub companies within them. Thesecond type of company hierarchy is for insurance companies, which willhave three different company structures.

When setting up a company for an insurance companies' direct repairprogram (DRP), a program that award shops that perform or adhere to theinsurance companies standards by sending vehicles to be repaired tothose locations, we must add three companies to the list. The firstcompany that must be added to the list is the insurance company, whichis set-up to add the name of the insurance company to the drop down menuwhen a repair facility parses an estimate. The second company added is anetwork company for the actual users in the network. These will be forthe repair facilities only. No suppliers are entered into companies. Therepair facilities are added into the local level of the network company.There are no users in the headquarters, regional, or user levels. Thethird company created for an insurance company DRP is the reportingcompany. The reporting company is for managers who will be reporting ontheir network. These will be insurance managers that could be in alllevels of the company, depending on their position. Thus, establishingthe reporting company in part location system 22 allows the insurancecompany to perform auditing on repair facilities that are part of thenetwork.

FIG. 38 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 440 forsetting up a company for a consolidator within part location system 22.A company for a consolidator is one company consisting of its presidentall the way down to the user level. In the example illustrated in FIG.38, the consolidator company called “ABRA” has a headquarter authority.

FIG. 39 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 450 forsetting up a regional office for ABRA. The regional office may be namedbased on its location. In the example illustrated in FIG. 39, theregional office is called “Colorado” and the Colorado manager, DavidCall, would be added as the user in that level. A local level is createdin the same manner as the headquarters and regional office

FIG. 40 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 460 forsetting up users within a local level of a consolidator company, e.g.,ABRA. In establishing the local lever, the user must add the repairfacilities, which are “users” to the local level. The user may addrepair facilities by entering in their user name and checking “bodyshop” and then selecting “Add User.” The user must also select whichInsurance companies that repair facility will use in their dailybusiness.

FIG. 41 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 470 forwatching a specific group of users to monitor their activity to ensurethat they keeping up with their agreed service level agreements. Thisaudit tool allows the user to look up usernames and passwords, specificRFQs, specific groups, specific purchase orders, and most importantly,RFQ and purchase order alerts.

FIG. 42 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 480 formonitoring RFQ alerts. An RFQ alert is to let the administrator knowwhen a lead has not been responded to in a network. For example, in thisscenario there are six total suppliers in the network and only threehave responded within ten minutes. The other three have not responded.The administrator may be responsible for making sure that thesesuppliers respond in 10-15 minutes. The administrator can view thenon-responsive supplier's information by clicking on the number in thesecond column. When this link is clicked it produces a pop-up in whichthe market maker or customer service agent can log all activityassociated with communicating with the supplier. All of this data rollsinto a management report that lets the manager know call times,comments, and feedback that the market maker has entered.

FIG. 43 is a screen illustration of an exemplary user interface 490 forviewing call times, comments, and feedback for users not keeping up withtheir agreed level of service.

FIG. 44 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary procedure to gatherquotations and make recommendations. Initially, a staff adjustor at aninsurance company submit input to part location system 18 (500). Thestaff adjustor may wait until part location system 18 notifies the staffadjustor that part location system 18 has received quotations fromsuppliers 14 regarding the input (502). The staff adjustor may thenaccess a recommendation user interface provided by part location system18 to view the received quotations (504). Based on the receivedquotations, the staff adjustor may recommend one or more of thequotations for purchase (506). For example, the staff examiner couldrecommend that the repair facility purchase the least expensive part. Inanother example, the staff examiner could recommend that the repairfacility purchase a part from a supplier known for its consistently highquality.

After receiving making the recommendations, the staff adjustor mayreceive a recommendation report with a transfer ID from part locationsystem 18 (508). The recommendation report may summarize the staffadjustor's recommendations. Receiving the recommendation report alsoallows the staff adjustor to preview the quotation report provided to arepair facility. If the staff adjustor is satisfied with therecommendation report, the staff adjustor may forward the transfer IDportion of the recommendation report to the repair facility (510).

FIG. 45 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary procedure for a repairfacility to access recommendation reports and create purchase orders.Initially, a repair facility (e.g., repair facility 12A) receives atransfer ID (520). For instance, repair facility 12A may receive atransfer ID via an electronic message that part location system 18automatically generated. Upon receiving the transfer ID, repair facility12A may access a welcome page provided by part location system 18 (522).

If repair facility 12A is not a registered user of part location system18 (“NO” of 524), repair facility 12A may enter the transfer ID in aninput field on the welcome page (526). In response, part location system18 may present a summary quotation report (528). In some embodiments,the summary quotation report may include a list that numbers how manyquotations were received for specific parts. After viewing the summaryquotation report, repair facility 12A may choose to register as a userof part location system 18 (530). If repair facility 12A chooses not toregister, some embodiments of part location system 18 do not let repairfacility 12A continue. On the other hand, if repair facility 12A choosesto register, part location system 18 allows repair facility 12A to viewthe quotations associated with the entered transfer ID (540).Subsequently, repair facility 12A may purchase parts using thequotations associated with the entered transfer ID (542).

If repair facility 12A is already a registered user of part locationsystem 18 (“YES” of 524), repair facility 12A may enter a username andpassword to access part location system 18 (544). Repair facility 12Amay then enter a transfer ID (546). Repair facility 12A may then viewquotations associated with the transfer ID (540) and purchase parts(542).

FIG. 46 is a screen illustration displaying a recommendation report 550.Part location system 18 may display recommendation report 550 to repairfacility 12A when repair facility 12A views quotes in step 540 (FIG.45). Note that recommendation report 550 includes a transfer ID 552.

FIG. 47 is a screen illustration of an exemplary welcome page 560 thatallows a repair facility to enter a transfer ID to retrieve quotesreceived in response to an RFQ. Part location system 18 may displaywelcome page 560 in step 522 (FIG. 45).

FIG. 48 is a screen illustration of an exemplary quotation summary 570.Quotation summary 570 contains a list of parts with an accompanyingnumber of quotations received for each of those parts. Part locationsystem 18 may display quotation summary 570 in step 528 (FIG. 45).

FIG. 49 is a screen illustration of an exemplary registration screen580. Registration screen 580 allows users to register with part locationsystem 18. As discussed above, registration may allow the users topurchase requested parts and view quotations that the staff estimatorreceived upon the first RFQ. Part location system 18 may displayregistration screen 580 at step 530 (FIG. 45).

FIG. 50 is a screen illustration of an exemplary quotation reviewinterface 590. Once registered, a user may have the ability to purchaseparts directly from suppliers who provided quotations. The user may belimited to only purchasing functions and has no access to reporting orany other functionality. Part location system 18 may present quotationreview interface 590 at step 540 (FIG. 45).

FIG. 51 is a screen illustration of an exemplary quotation reviewinterface 600 for existing users of part location system 18. Registeredusers, upon receiving notification of a recommendation report, can entera transfer ID associated with the recommendation number through an inputfield 604 in quotation review interface 600. Input field 604 allows theregistered user to transfer claims into the user's workspace. Quotationreview interface 600 also includes a set of links 602. When theregistered user clicks on one of links 602, part location system 18allows the user to view transferred activity, make purchase decisions,and pull transferable claims into the user's workspace.

FIG. 52 is a screen illustration of an exemplary repair facilitymanagement calendar 610. A repair facility version of managementcalendar 610 allows the user to see purchase orders the repair facilityhas made for a week and statuses assigned to the purchase ordersthroughout the life cycle of a purchase order. A “purchase orderpending” status 612 lets the user know that the purchase order the usersubmitted is awaiting acceptance from a supplier for shipping. A“purchase order accepted” status notifies the user that the partsrequested for purchase have been accepted and will be delivered on theday agreed upon. When supplier accepts the purchase order, partslocation system 18 may automatically move the purchase order to the dateagreed upon. A “purchase order declined” status signifies to the userthat the supplier has declined the purchase order and may state a reasonfor declining within the link provided.

FIG. 53 is a screen illustration of an exemplary supplier managementcalendar 620. Supplier management calendar 620 allows a supplier to viewall pending purchase orders that are waiting for review and acceptance.Once the supplier reviews and accepts a purchase order, parts locationsystem 18 automatically moves the purchase order to the agreed upondelivery date and transfers the purchase order to a daily deliverycalendar. The daily delivery calendar reminds the supplier of deliveriesfor the week.

FIG. 54 is a screen illustration of an exemplary parts quoted screen630. Part location system 18 may display parts quoted screen 630 tosuppliers. Parts quotes screen 630 may allow suppliers 14 to view allclaims that suppliers 14 have successfully quoted parts on. A suppliermay have the option to see both staff and body shop claims in partsquoted view.

FIG. 55 is a screen illustration of an exemplary quotation reviewinterface 640 that allows a user to sort quotations by supplier. Inparticular, quotation review interface 640 includes a drop-down box 642that allows the user to choose which of suppliers 14 the user prefers todo business with and filter out the remaining suppliers' quotations. Asillustrated in quotation review interface 640, the name of each supplierlisted in drop-down box 642 may be followed by a number of quotationsthe supplier returned vs. the number of parts requested on this specificclaim.

FIG. 56 is a screen illustration of an exemplary supplier survey 650.Part location system 18 may include the ability for repair facilityestimators, who are making purchase from suppliers, to provide feedbackon how suppliers 14 are doing. Questions in supplier survey 650 maycollect information on quality, speed and accuracy.

FIG. 57 is a screen illustration of an exemplary delivery profile inputscreen 660. Delivery profile input screen 660 allows suppliers 14 tochoose areas that they deliver to by city state, zip or radius. A staffadjuster can enter a zip code when searching for parts and, if adelivery profile of a supplier includes that zip code, parts locationsystem 18 searches the inventory of that supplier.

FIG. 58 is a screen illustration of an exemplary warranty andcertification interface 670. Warranty and certification interface 670allows suppliers 14 to display warranties 672 and any certifications 674suppliers 14 may carry. Parts location system 14 may display warranties672 and certifications 674 in pop up windows when parts location system14 displays a supplier's name for each quotation.

FIG. 59 is a screen illustration of an exemplary inventory consolidationinterface 680. Inventory consolidation screen 680 allows for supplierswith multiple locations 682 across the country to be able to consolidatetheir inventory for every location. Each location can represent theother location's inventory as part of its own inventory and have theother inventories displayed as such. This may allow more salesopportunities as more parts can be quoted from one location.

FIG. 60 is a screen illustration of an exemplary quotation reviewinterface 690 having a flyover pop-up 692. Quotation review interface690 allows a user to move a mouse cursor over a selected area to displayinformation in pop up 692. As soon as the mouse cursor hovers over theselected area, details within the link appear on the screen. Once themouse moves off the selected area, pop-up 692 may disappear.

FIG. 61 is a screen illustration of an exemplary recommendation reportimage 700. Part location system 18 allows a user to convert arecommendation report into a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)image. After converting the recommendation report into a JPEG image, theJPEG image may be imported into an estimating platform. Importing arecommendation report image may allow estimators to save therecommendation report as a JPEG and attach the JPEG with the finalestimate.

FIG. 62 is a screen illustration of an exemplary recommendationinterface 710 sorted by type of part. For example, recommendationinterface 710 may sort quotations by recycled, aftermarket,reconditioned, recovered parts, and original equipment types.

The above embodiment of a web site in the Internet uses a generalpurpose computing system for an example of a suitable operatingenvironment in which the invention may be implemented. The operatingenvironment is only one example of a suitable operating environment andis not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use orfunctionality of the invention. Other well known computing systems,environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use withthe invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers,server computers, held-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based systems, programmable consumer electronics, networkPCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computingenvironments that include any of the above systems or devices, and thelike.

FIG. 63 is a screen illustration of an exemplary parts supplier servicearea 720. As discussed above in regards to FIG. 57, suppliers 14 mayenter lists of zip codes that indicate delivery areas. In otherinterfaces, suppliers 14 may enter other information that specifies ageographic area (e.g., county names, highway names, telephone areacodes, etc.) When a staff adjustor enters a zip code when searching forparts, part location system 18 may dynamically create a map thatillustrates a geographic area to which a supplier delivers based on thelist of zip codes entered by the supplier.

As illustrated in the example of FIG. 63, one of suppliers 14 hasentered zip codes associated with areas of northeast Texas, westernLouisiana, and southwestern Arkansas. A black line 722 outlines theareas within the delivery area of the supplier.

FIG. 64 is a screen illustration of an exemplary insurance rulesinterface 730. Individual states, provinces, counties, cities, or othertypes of political subdivisions may have insurance rules that differfrom national insurance rules. For example, an insurance provider mayhave a nationwide rule allowing repair facilities 12 to use after-marketparts. However, the state of Massachusetts may have a rule thatprohibits repair facilities 12 from using after-market parts when newparts are available. For this reason, insurance rules interface 730enables a user to view and to make insurance rules on a state-specificbasis.

Insurance rules interface 730 includes a “view parts rules” form 732that allows a user to search for parts rules associated with aninsurance provider. Form 732 may allow a user to enter one or moresearch criteria. Because individual states may have different rules,form 732 may include a selection box 734 that enables a user to specifya state as a criterion when searching for rules for an insuranceprovider. When the user selects a submit button associated with form732, part location system 18 may display a list of rules that conform tothe search criteria specified in form 732.

Insurance rules interface 730 also includes an “add parts rules” form736 that allows a user to add a parts rule to be associated with aninsurance provider. Form 736 includes a set of selection boxes thatallow the user to enter information about the new rule. These selectionboxes include a state selection box 738 that enables the user to selecta state to which the new rule is applicable.

Part location system 18 may use the insurance rules to filter quotationsreceived in response to an RFQ. For example, part location system 18 mayidentify those quotations received in response to an RFQ that complywith an insurance rule specific to a state that has jurisdiction over arepair facility. Part location system 18 may then present only theidentified quotations to the repair facility.

FIG. 65 is a screen illustration of an exemplary administrativeinterface 740 to close an outstanding claim. A user may potentially opena claim with part location system 18 and leave that claim outstandingfor an extended period of time. For example, a user might not follow upon a claim for several months. In general, a user who does not finalizea claim after several months does not intend to finalize the claim. Inother words, the user may have abandoned the claim.

Administrative interface 740 may allow an administrator of part locationsystem 18 to close claims that have been abandoned. Closing abandonedclaims may conserve resources in part location system 18.

FIG. 66 is a screen illustration of an exemplary internal reportinginterface 750 that uses Asynchronous JavaScript and extensible markuplanguage (XML). Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (AJAX) technology is atechnique for presenting data in a web browser. Internal reportinginterface 750 uses AJAX technology present data in a web browser. When auser first accesses internal reporting interface 750, a user's webbrowser downloads a web page that includes scripting code. For example,the web page may include JavaScript code. When the web browser receivesthe web page, the web browser executes some of the scripting code. Thisscripting code then causes the user's web browser to download XML code,to generate hyper-text markup language (HTML) code based on the XMLcode, and to present information based on the HTML code. The scriptingcode may also include instructions that cause the web browser todownload additional units of XML code in response to input from a userwithout reloading internal reporting interface 750. Because the browserdoes not reload the entire web page each time the user requestsadditional information, internal reporting interface 750 may have a“look and feel” that is similar to the “look and feel” of a desktopapplication.

FIG. 67 is a screen illustration of an exemplary response time reportinterface 760. Part location system 18 may present response time reportinterface 760 in order to enable a user to view how long it takes foreach of suppliers 14 to generate quotations. As illustrated in theexample of FIG. 67, response time report interface 760 may include dropboxes 762 that enable a user to select a supplier to view.

Response time report interface 760 also includes links 764 that enable auser to view per-part hit rate reports, recycled parts selectionreports, competitive pricing by part reports, and traditional recycledhit rate reports. A user may utilize a per-part hit rate report to gaugeperformance of part location system 18 on a per-part basis relating toquotes returned on unique parts requested. A user may utilize a recycledparts selection report to identify frequencies at which users selectrecycled parts. A user may utilize a competitive pricing by part reportto identify trend lines on patterns of selections of parts based uponprice. A user may utilize a traditional recycled hit rate report tomeasure performance of part location system 18 according to a recycledhit rate measure.

FIG. 68 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary details of system 10.As illustrated in the example of FIG. 68, suppliers 14A though 14Kinclude respective ones of inventory management systems 770A through770K (collectively, “inventory management systems 770”). Inventorymanagement systems 770 may comprise software systems that help suppliers14 manage their respective inventories. For example, each of inventorymanagement systems 770 may maintain lists of parts that suppliers 14have in stock. Furthermore, inventory management systems 770 may provideweb pages to devices on computer network 16. These web pages may listparts in the inventories of suppliers 14. Suppliers 14 may use differenttypes of inventory management software systems. For example, inventorymanagement system 770A may comprise a “Pinnacle” inventory managementsystem published by Actual Systems of America, ASA, in Aurora, Coloradoand inventory management system 770B may comprise a “Powerlink”inventory management system published by Audatex Corp. of San Ramon,Calif.

Part location system 18 may include a remote data capture (RDC) module772. When part location system 18 parses an estimate, RDC module 772 mayretrieve web pages provided by inventory management systems 770. WhenRDC module 772 retrieves a web page that lists the inventory of one ofsuppliers 14, RDC module 772 may use “screen scraping” to parse the webpage in order to extract the list of the supplier's inventory along withprice information. Alternatively, RDC module 772 may directly accessdatabases maintained by inventory management systems 770 in order toretrieve lists of suppliers' inventory. Part location system 18 may thenuse the list to construct a quotation from the supplier. In this way,RDC module 772 automatically generates a virtual request for quote(RFQ), virtually sends the RFQ to the supplier, and by extracting thelist of inventory from the web page receives a virtual quotation fromthe supplier.

As illustrated in the example of FIG. 68, repair facilities 12A through12N may include respective ones of estimating platforms 774A through774N (collectively, “estimating platforms 774”). Estimating platforms774 may comprise software systems that help estimators at repairfacilities 12 prepare estimates. For example, estimating platforms 774may comprise Mitchell Ultramate estimating platforms published byMitchell International, Inc. of San Diego, Calif.

An estimator at one of repair facilities 12 may use one of estimatingplatforms 774 to enter initial estimate information. For example, anestimator at repair facility 12A may use estimating platform 774A toenter a list of parts that are likely to be needed. After the estimatorenters the initial estimate information, the estimating platform maysubmit the initial estimate information to part location system 18. Inresponse to the initial estimate information, part location system 18may provide to the estimating platform one or more quotations fromsuppliers 14. While the estimating platform is waiting for part locationsystem 18 to respond to the initial estimate information, the estimatormay continue entering information into the estimating platform. Forexample, the estimator may enter administrative information (e.g.,claimant contact information, insurance carrier information, etc.).

When part location system 18 has received one or more quotations fromsuppliers 14, part location system 18 may present the quotations to theestimating platform in the repair facility. For example, part locationsystem 18 may format the quotations as one or more XML documents andprovide these XML documents to the estimating platform. In this example,the estimating platform may use the XML documents to automaticallyinclude one or more of the quotations into a current estimate in theestimating platform. Alternatively, when part location system 18 hasreceived one or more quotations from suppliers 14, part location system18 may generate a message that alerts the estimator that one or morequotations are ready to be viewed. In response to this message, theestimator may use a web browser to view a web page provided by partlocation system 18 that presents the quotations. In this example, theestimator may then enter data from one or more of the quotations intothe current estimate in the estimating platform. After data from one ormore of the quotations is entered into the current estimate in theestimating platform, the estimating platform may perform one or moretests on the current estimate. If the current estimate passes thesetests, the estimating platform may generate a final estimate based onthe current estimate. The final estimate may include one or more of thequotations received from part location system 18. The estimator may thenpresent the final estimate to an insurance company for approval. If theinsurance company approves the final estimate, the insurance company maypresent the final estimate to one of repair facilities 12.

Furthermore, control module 23 of part location system 18 may include anestimate update module 776. Estimate update module 776 may determinewhether parts specified by the one or more quotations are still validafter the one or more quotations have been presented to the repairfacility. In addition, estimate update module 776 may determine whetheradditional quotations have been received after the one or morequotations have been presented to the repair facility. Estimate updatemodule 776 may cause user interface module 25 to present the additionalquotations to the repair facility when one or more of the quotations areno longer valid and when the additional quotations have been received.

FIG. 69 is a screen illustration of an exemplary remote data captureadministration interface 780. Remote data capture administrationinterface 780 allows a user to view information about a supplier'sinventory management system. As illustrated in the example of FIG. 69,remote data capture administration interface 780 specifies contactinformation for a supplier, inventory management system type, inventorymanagement system version, and other supplier information.

FIG. 70 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary interaction with one ofestimating platforms 774. Initially, an insurance company assigns aclaim to an estimator at one of repair facilities 12 (790). Theestimator may then begin a new estimate using a one of estimatingplatforms 774 (792). After beginning a new estimate, the estimator mayprepare an initial estimate using the estimating platform (794). Whenthe estimator finishes preparing the initial estimate, the estimationplatform may submit the initial estimate to part location system 18(796). Part location system 18 may, in response to the submission of theinitial estimate, present to the estimating platform one or morequotations from suppliers 14 based on the initial estimate (798). Afterthe estimating platform receives the quotations, the estimator may usethe quotations to complete the estimate (800).

When the estimator completes the estimate, the estimating platform mayperform an initial compliance check on the estimate (802). During theinitial compliance check, the estimating platform may access one or moredatabases to check whether the parts specified by the quotations are theoptimal parts for the repair job. If the estimate passes the initialcompliance check (i.e., if the parts in the quotations are the optimalparts), the estimating platform may upload the estimate to a servermaintained by an insurance company (804). The insurance company may thenreview the estimate (806). If the insurance company approves theestimate, the insurance company may present the estimate to one or moreof repair facilities 12 (808). The repair facilities may then use theestimate to purchase the parts specified by the estimate and to performa repair job (810).

FIG. 71 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary operation to verifywhether parts are still available at quoted prices. In many situations,a significant period of time may pass between a time when part locationsystem 18 receives quotations from suppliers 14 and a time when repairfacilities 12 actually use the quotations to purchase parts. During thisperiod of time, suppliers 14 may have sold out of the parts or theprices on the parts may have changed. For this reason, an estimate mayspecify prices based on quotations that are no longer valid. Userinterface module 25 in part location system 18 may provide one or moreinterfaces that allow a staff adjustor at one of repair facilities 12 oranother user to verify whether a claim includes one or more quotationsthat are no longer valid. The exemplary operation of FIG. 71 illustratesa sequence of steps that may be used to verify whether a claim includesone or more quotations that are no longer valid.

Initially, a user may use an interface provided by user interface module25 to access an existing claim (820). After accessing the existingclaim, the user may open a recommendation report for the existing claim(822). For example, the user may open a recommendation report similar torecommendation report 550. Although not shown in the example of FIG. 46,recommendation report 550 may include a link to refresh the partsquotations associated with the estimate. In order to verify whether oneor more of the parts quotations in the estimate are still valid, theuser may click the link to refresh the parts quotations associated withthe estimate (824).

When the user clicks the link to refresh the parts quotations associatedwith the estimate, estimate update module 776 in part location system 18may determine whether the parts listed in the recommendation report ofthe estimate are still available at the quoted prices (826). If theparts are still available at the quoted prices (“YES” of 826), estimateupdate module 776 may notify the user that the parts are still availableat the quoted prices (828). When estimate update module 776 notifies theuser that the parts are still available, the user may add a note to theestimate indicating that the parts were still available at the quotedprices at the current date and time. If the parts are not stillavailable at the quoted prices (“NO” of 826), estimate update module 776may notify the user that the parts are no longer available at the quotedprices (830).

In addition, estimate update module 776 may determine whether partlocation system 18 has received any additional quotations in which theparts are still available (832). If there are no additional quotations(“NO” of 832), estimate update module 776 might not be able to performany additional action (834). For instance, a staff adjustor may have toinstruct part location system 18 to send out additional requests forquotations. On the other hand, if part location system 18 has receivedadditional quotations (“YES” of 832), estimate update module 776 maycause user interface module 25 in parts location system 18 may presentthese additional quotations to the user (836).

When user interface module 25 presents these additional quotes, the usermay cause estimate update module 776 to reopen the pending status of theestimate (838). Because the estimate is once again pending, the user mayupdate the estimate, but an insurance provider may have to approve theestimate again. When estimate update module 776 reopens the estimate,estimate update module 776 may add a suffix to the estimate identifier(840). For example, estimate update module 776 may add the number “2” tothe end of the estimate identifier in order to indicate that theestimate is a second version of the estimate. Next, estimate updatemodule 776 may update the estimate to include pricing information foundin one or more of the additional quotations (842). By updating theestimate, estimate update module 776 may delete the old priceinformation in the estimate (844).

The invention may also be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, executed byone or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modulesinclude routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc.that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes. Typically the functionality of the program modules may becombined or distributed in desired in various embodiments.

A processing device attached to a communications network typicallyincludes at least some form of computer readable media. Computerreadable media can be any available media that can be accessed by thesedevices. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable mediamay comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computerstorage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable andnon-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storageof information such as computer readable instructions, data structures,program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but isnot limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memorytechnology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other opticalstorage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used tostore the desired information and which can be accessed by processingdevices.

Additionally, the embodiments described herein are implemented aslogical operations performed by programmable processing devices. Thelogical operations of these various embodiments of the present inventionare implemented (1) as a sequence of computer implemented steps orprogram modules running on a computing system and/or (2) asinterconnected machine modules or hardware logic within the computingsystem. The implementation is a matter of choice dependent on theperformance requirements of the computing system implementing theinvention. Accordingly, the logical operations making up the embodimentsof the invention described herein can be variously referred to asoperations, steps, or modules.

While the above embodiments of the present invention describe a systemand method for sale of recycled, used, OEM and original manufacturerparts over the Internet, one skilled in the art will recognize that theuse of a particular computing architecture for a data processing systemare merely example embodiments of the present invention. It is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and operationalchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the presentinvention as recited in the attached claims.

As such, the foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of theinvention has been presented for the purposes of illustration anddescription. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theinvention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications andvariations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is intendedthat the scope of the invention be limited not with this detaileddescription, but rather by the claims appended hereto. The presentinvention is presently embodied as a method and apparatus for sale ofrecycled, used, OEM and original manufacturer parts over the Internet.

Various embodiments of the invention have been described. These andother embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

1. An estimating platform for preparing an estimate for a claim torepair an automobile, the estimating platform comprising: a computingdevice having a processor; an estimating software platform executing onthe processor, wherein the estimating software platform presents aninput screen to receive and initial estimate from a user to repair anautomobile, wherein the initial estimate includes a list of parts neededto repair the automobile, wherein the estimation software platformprovides the initial estimate to a part location system via acommunication network wherein the estimating platform receives one ormore electronic quotations from the part location device in response toan RFQ automatically generated by the part location device based on theinitial estimate and sent from the part location device to one or moresupplier computers via the communication network, wherein the estimatingplatform automatically incorporates one or more of the quotationsreceived from the parts location device into the initial estimate toform a final estimate.
 2. The estimating platform of claim 1, whereinthe estimating platform receives the quotations from the part locationsystem as one or more extensible markup language (XML) documents.
 3. Theestimating platform of claim 1, wherein the estimating platform performsa compliance check on the quotations received from the part locationsystem prior to forming the final estimate.
 4. The estimating platformof claim 3, wherein the estimating platform accesses one or moredatabases to check whether parts specified by the quotations are optimalparts to repair the automobile.
 5. The estimating platform of claim 1,wherein the estimating platform presents the final estimate to the userfor review and, upon receiving approval from the user, communicates thefinal estimate to one or more of repair facilities via the communicationnetwork.
 6. A method for preparing an estimate for a claim to repair anautomobile comprising: receiving an initial estimate with an estimatingsoftware platform executing on a computing device, wherein the initialestimate includes a list of parts needed to repair the automobile;electronically communicating the initial estimate from the estimationsoftware platform to a part location system via a communication network;receiving one or more electronic quotations from the part locationdevice estimating platform in response to an RFQ automatically generatedby the part location device based on the initial estimate and sent fromthe part location device to one or more supplier computers via thecommunication network; and processing the electronic quotations with theestimating platform to automatically incorporate one or more of thequotations received from the parts location device into the initialestimate to form a final estimate.
 7. The method of claim 6, whereinreceiving one or more electronic quotations comprises receiving thequotations from the part location system as one or more extensiblemarkup language (XML) documents.
 8. The method of claim 6, furthercomprising performing a compliance check on the quotations received fromthe part location system with the estimating platform prior to formingthe final estimate.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprisingaccessing one or more databases with the estimating platform to checkwhether the parts specified by the quotations are optimal parts torepair the automobile.
 10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:presenting the final estimate to the user for review; and upon receivingapproval from the user, communicating the final estimate from theestimating platform to one or more of repair facilities via thecommunication network.